(i) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the provision of electrolytic apparatus and, in particular, although not necessarily solely, electrolytic apparatus suitable for welding.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
Conventional electrolytic apparatus has been made to manufacture hydrogen and oxygen from water. One use of such hydrogen oxygen production is in welding equipment to replace the convention oxyacetylene mixture for gas welding. Many other uses of the hydrogen oxygen will be apparent to those skilled in the art. However, the provision of welding equipment based on the hydrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen can have special problems.
Existing prior art hydrolysis equipment has included conventional horse shoe cells as well as cells utilising plates within a generally rectangular cell and the use of membranes between the plates such that the hydrogen and oxygen are separated within the cell. Such membranes often comprise silk, polyester woven cloth or a variety of other plastic membranes between adjacent electrode plates that allow charge to transfer from one plate to another and yet inhibit the free flow of gas bubbles within the solution.
The use of such cells allows the separation of the hydrogen and oxygen from its point of formation and the hydrogen and oxygen may be maintained in separate conduits throughout the apparatus until its necessary combination at the head of the welder or similar apparatus.
The use of such technology involves complex manufacture in the use of the impermeable membranes, a greater degree of maintenance and also less efficient gas production than other configurations. In particular, the use of concentric cylindrical electrodes within a cell allows more efficient gas production, however, there are manufacturing difficulties in providing impermeable membranes or other separators to avoid the production of a mixed hydrogen and oxygen gas within the cell.
Gas produced from concentric cylindrical electrodes may be used in its mixed form as produced or later separated into hydrogen and oxygen components. In either case, it is difficult to avoid the production of the mixed hydrogen and oxygen gas within the cell itself. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate adequate safety measures against explosion of the volatile hydrogen and oxygen mix within the cell should a fault cause ignition to occur within the cell.
A further problem encountered with such welding apparatus is that the generation of hydrogen and oxygen by the hydrolysis process causes some saturated water vapour to leave the generating cells with the gases. This may typically be a value of say three percent by volume and in the case of combustion such as is required with welding apparatus, the saturated water vapour may have the effect of reducing the flame temperature from 3000.degree. C. to 2,500.degree. C. The saturated water vapour within the generated gas can also provide other problems such as condensation in reticulation systems and corrosion of safety devices.